This 4th collection of fiction by Jack Fritscher follows the National Small Press Book Award to his 3rd collection, Rainbow County and 11 Other Stories, as "Best Erotic Book 1998." In itself, Titanic is a novella anchoring 9 very diverse and quite literary short stories whose erotic-themes have proven audience-friendly in previous publication in a variety of gay magazines. The title piece, Titanic, isat long lastthe forbidden gay love story of the most erotic cruise in history, featuring the Unsinkable Molly Brown, the Stoker, the Purser, and the Lovers ripped from the secret pages of a Titanic diary!

The titles of the other stories suggest their gay pop-erotica entertainment value: "Brideshead of Frankenstein Revisited," "Billy Budd-Jones," "My Baby Loves the Western Movies," "Seducing Butch: Tattooed Biker," "YMCA: The Night They Made Me a Man," and "Tales from the Bear Cult." Also included is the new and never published coming-of age story, "Movie Palace Blues: The Unseen Hand in the Lavender Light." Readers may also enjoy the inclusion of a most readable X-rated screenplay, "Buck's Bunkhouse," which was recently taped as an actual erotic video.

"There is more diversity in these 10 stories by one author," says A Different Light Bookstore owner Richard LaBonte, "than in most anthologies by 10 authors." This is author Fritscher's 12th book. In total, his books have sold to date more than 100,000 copies, and his name recognition is high from many years of publication in more than 25 gay magazines. He is best known for his biographical memoir of his life with his lover Robert Mapplethorpe, Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera, and for his epic novel, Some Dance to Remember, which The New Republic called a classic comparable to Gore Vidal and James Baldwin.

REVIEWS of TITANIC: FORBIDDEN STORIES HOLLYWOOD FORGOT

"TITANIC!" Finally, the forbidden gay love story of the most erotic cruise in history, featuring the Unsinkable Molly Brown, the Stoker, the Purser, and the Lovers who.... You will never forget this story ripped from the secret pages of a Titanic diary!

"BRIDESHEAD OF FRANKENSTEIN REVISTED" The hilarious erotic satire of the movies Brideshead Revisited and The Bride of Frankenstein follows the adventures of a bored longtime couple vacationing in Transylvania--and the young blond athlete (and the one drop of sweat) who changes their lives.

"BILLY BUDD-JONES" Young sailors' ritual shipboard initiation crossing the Equator leads to naked oil wrestling and uncut foreskin games served with a smegma lunch.

"MY BABY LOVES THE WESTERN MOVIES!" Uncut blond teen warrior, named "Horse Skin," raised on the lone prairie, sports a loin-cloth body that's a natural wonder to the wandering cowboy who shares their unnatural love of the unskinned dick of the old West.

"BUCK'S BUNKHOUSE DISCIPLINE: THE EROTIC SCREENPLAY" Pretend you are the star as you read the actual XXX-script of a porn video showcasing blond cowboy Buck and the Daddy-Bear Rancher who keeps him a sextoy with cigars and bondage!

"THE UNSEEN HAND IN THE LAVENDER LIGHT" Furtive secret sex in a movie house in a time gone by leads a deeply closeted boy-man to pee in the snow and become the ultimate movie-queen of his dreams.

"CBGB 1977!" Erotic encounters in first days of Punk Rock introduces a young New York leather stud to the depths of new experiences of urban sex outside the famous CBGB club where rocker Patti Smith sang to the very young photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe.

"WORSHIP ME!" Man-to-man adventures in a San Francisco YMCA toilet during the 1970's Golden Age of Sex reveal absolute masculinity as the hot melting core of gay sex before the virus.

"SEDUCING BUTCH: TATTOOED ARYAN BIKER" This fab story is lesson number one in how a dare-devil gay trickster uses a video camera to make a straight excon biker drop his jeans and his load.

"TALES FROM THE BEAR CULT: BUZZ SPAULDING'S TRAINING CAMP" Big Man, 32, 6-4, 260#, will train, coach, groom, and feed "cub-boys" who dreams of getting "big"! Inside secrets of how hairy men make themselves and each other into massive, furry sex-daddies.

"DEAR SARGE" Almost scary letter from a leatherboy in search of handcuffs, cigars, bondage, and interrogation by rogue cops who actually exist and answer letters like these in the gay press personal classifieds. Don't let this happen to you!